Reciprocating saw blade with plunge nose

ABSTRACT

A reciprocating saw blade includes a body formed from a piece of coil stock. The body has a shank end configured to secure the blade with a reciprocating saw, a plunging end configured to enter a workpiece, and a cutting edge and opposite back edge extending between the shank end and the plunging end. The cutting edge has a plurality of teeth arranged in a pattern that includes left and right set teeth. A plurality of gullets is disposed between adjacent teeth. Each of the teeth and the gullets has substantially the same size, except that the first and third consecutive teeth immediately adjacent the plunging end have been flattened to be unset, and at least a portion of the second consecutive tooth has been removed to form an enlarged gullet between the first and third teeth.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. § 120 as a continuationof U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/261,186, filed Oct. 30, 2008,titled “Reciprocating Saw Blade with Plunge Nose,” currently pending,which claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/007,232,filed on Dec. 11, 2007. The entire disclosure of each of theseapplications is incorporated herein by reference.

FIELD

The present disclosure relates to reciprocating saw blades and, moreparticularly, to reciprocating saw blades with a plunge nose, and tomethods of manufacturing such reciprocating saw blades.

BACKGROUND

Numerous trades utilize reciprocating saws and blades to cut variousobjects. Plumbers utilize reciprocating saw blades to cut PVC pipe aswell as to rough in holes in sub flooring. Heating and ventilatingcontractors utilize reciprocating saw blades to cut vents into subflooring. Contractors utilize reciprocating saws to frame windows,doors, and the like. Also, renovation contractors utilize reciprocatingsaw blades to cut through nails and the like to remove walls and thelike. These users rely on reciprocating saw blades that cut fast, have adesirable blade life or durability and enable easy plunge cutting thatprovides a fast, as well as a controlled cut. Available reciprocatingsaw blades that are utilized to plunge cut have a nose that, when it isplunged into the sub flooring or a workpiece, creates an enlargedinaccurate kurf. Thus, the reciprocating saw blade haphazardly bitesinto the workpiece. This slows the cutting process as well as providesthe user with little or no control when plunging the reciprocating sawblade into the workpiece. Thus, it would be desirable to have areciprocating saw blade that rapidly plunges into the workpiece toprovide an accurate kurf while enabling fast cutting of the workpiece.

Accordingly, the present disclosure provides the art with such areciprocating saw blade. The present reciprocating saw blade pierces theworkpiece for fast and accurate plunge cutting. The present saw bladeprovides easy plunge cutting and provides the user with a controlled cutwhich, in turn, is also a fast cut. The reciprocating saw blade has anextended blade life that provides significant durability. The presentreciprocating saw blade provides faster removal of swarf from the kurf.The present saw blade provides a first full raker tooth that quicklypierces the workpiece to provide faster cutting of the workpiece.

SUMMARY

In accordance with the first aspect of the disclosure, a reciprocatingsaw blade comprises a body with two ends and two edges. A first shankingend secures the blade with the reciprocating saw. The second end is aplunging end to enter into a workpiece. A first edge has a plurality ofteeth and gullets. The second back edge opposes the first edge. Theplurality of teeth has a first tooth immediately adjacent the plungingend. The first tooth is a full tooth and is also a raker tooth or unsettooth. The first tooth has a relief face angle of about 35° to 50°. Afirst gullet is adjacent the first tooth. The first gullet has a size atleast 1.5 times the gullet size of the remaining gullets of theplurality of gullets. The gullet size is generally from 2 to 5.5 timesthe size of the remaining gullets of the plurality of gullets. Theplunging end has an end face on an angle of about 35° to 45° withrespect to a longitudinal axis of the blade. The plunging end has an endsurface intersecting the first tooth to form a cutting edge. Theplurality of teeth is set teeth.

Accordingly to another aspect of the disclosure, a reciprocating sawblade comprises a body with two ends and two edges. The first shankingend secures the blade with a reciprocating saw. A second plunging end ispresent to enter a workpiece. A first edge has a plurality of teeth andgullets. The second back edge opposes the first edge. The plurality ofteeth has a first tooth immediately adjacent the plunging end. The firsttooth is a full tooth and is also a raker or unset tooth. The firsttooth has a relief face angle of about 35° to 50°. The remainder of theplurality of teeth have substantially the same size, also the gulletshave substantially the same size. One tooth immediately adjacent thefirst tooth of the plurality of teeth is missing from the plurality ofteeth forming a gap between the first tooth and the plurality of teeth.Two teeth of the plurality of teeth may be missing forming a larger gap.The plunging end has an end surface on an angle of about 35° to 45° withrespect to the longitudinal axis of the blade. The plunging end has anend surface intersecting the first tooth to form a cutting edge. Theplurality of teeth is set teeth.

Accordingly to a third aspect of the disclosure, a method formanufacturing a reciprocating saw blade comprises forming a plurality ofteeth into a coil stock. The coil stock is fed into a die set. Teeth onthe coil stock are located in the die set. A portion of the teeth on thecoil stock is flattened. A first tooth and a first gullet of areciprocating saw blade and a third tooth are formed into the flattenedportion of the coil stock. The reciprocating saw blade is formed with afirst tooth and a first gullet with the first gullet being enlarged withrespect to the remaining gullets of a plurality of gullets. Theflattening step includes flattening at least three teeth of theplurality of teeth. The coil stock is punched to form the first toothand the first gullet of the saw blade. The teeth are milled and set intothe coil stock. The set teeth are flattened to form the first tooth as araker or unset tooth. The first gullet has size 1.5 to 5.5 times thesize of the remaining gullets of the plurality of gullets.

Further areas of applicability will become apparent from the descriptionprovided herein. It should be understood that the description andspecific examples are intended for purposes of illustration only and arenot intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure.

DRAWINGS

The drawings described herein are for illustration purposes only and arenot intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure in any way.

FIG. 1 is a side elevational view of a reciprocating saw blade inaccordance with the present disclosure.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of FIG. 1 rotated approximately 90°.

FIG. 3 is an enlarged elevational view of the nose of FIG. 1.

FIG. 4 is a view like FIG. 3 rotated approximately 90°.

FIG. 5 is an elevational view of an additional embodiment of the presentinvention.

FIG. 6 is a schematic view of a method of manufacturing a saw blade.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The following description is merely exemplary in nature and is notintended to limit the present disclosure, application, or uses.

Turning to the figures, particularly FIG. 1, a reciprocating saw bladeis illustrated and designated with the reference numeral 10. Thereciprocating saw blade 10 includes a body 12 which has a first shankingend 14 and a plunging nose end 16. The body 12 includes two edges. Thefirst edge is a cutting edge 18 and the second edge is an opposing backedge 20. The cutting edge 18 includes a plurality of teeth 22. Eachtooth includes a gullet 24. The gullets 24 are substantially identicaland all have substantially the same size. Additionally, the teeth 22 aresubstantially identical and all have substantially the same size. Also,the teeth 22 are set teeth alternating left and right, separated by araker, left, right. The left and right set can be alternated to providea desired saw blade. The set of the teeth provides spacing for the body12 and clearance for the back edge so that it can be maneuvered throughthe created kurf.

The plurality of teeth 22 includes a rake face 26 and a relief face 28.The rake face 26 and relief face 28 intersect one another to form acutting edge 30. The rake face 26 is preferably at a rake angle α ofabout 3° to 10°. The relief face 28 is at a relief angle β from about15° to 35°. The tooth 22 has an included angle δ of about 45° to about72°.

The gullets 24 have a desired volume as illustrated in the shaded areaof FIG. 3. The volume of each of the gullets 24 is substantially thesame for all of the gullets 24.

The plunging end 16 has a first tooth 40 adjacent the end surface 42 ofthe plunging nose 16. The tooth 40 is a full tooth and is also a rakeror unset tooth. The tooth 40 has substantially the same rake face 44 andrake angle as that previously discussed. A relief surface 46 is formedon the plunging end by removing a portion of the first tooth on a reliefangle Φ from about 35° to about 50° so that the first toot h has asomewhat different configuration than the other teeth. Preferably, therelief angle is about 45°. The first tooth 40 may be offset toward theback edge 20 from a line through the cutting edges 30 to about 0.25 mm.This insures a sharp cutting edge on the first tooth 40.

A first gullet 48 is positioned adjacent the rake face 44. The firstgullet 48 has a size from 1.5 to 5.5 times, preferably 2 to 5.5 times,the size of the remaining gullets 24. Thus, an enlarged gullet 48 isformed between the first tooth 40 and the remainder of the plurality ofteeth 22. A second tooth has been removed or is missing from theplurality of teeth 22 to form the gap which creates the first gullet 48.Thus, by removing a tooth, this allows the first tooth 40 to cut intothe workpiece so the third tooth 60 (first tooth of the remainder of theplurality of teeth 22) cannot engage or alter the path of the firsttooth. Additionally, the third tooth 60 is preferably a raker orstraight tooth This provides for a straight groove cut into theworkpiece that is not influenced by the set plurality of teeth 22. Also,by having the first tooth 40 and a larger gullet, faster and greaterchip removal is provided as well as an increased cutting speed.

The end surface 42 of the plunge nose 16 is on an angle of 35° to 45°and preferably 39° with respect to the longitudinal axis of the blade.This aggressive angle provides for clearance of the plunge nose 16 toenable it to plunge faster into the workpiece. Also, the end surface 42intersects the relief surface 46 of the first tooth to form a cuttingedge 52 at the tip of the blade. An included angle of about 60° to 90°is formed between the end surface 42 and relief surface 46. Thisenhances the chipping action of the reciprocating saw blade 10 once thesaw blade enters into the kurf of the workpiece.

FIG. 5 illustrates a second embodiment. Here, the saw blade is the sameas that previously disclosed; however, two teeth are missing out of theplurality of teeth behind the first tooth 40. This provides an evenlarger first gullet 48′ about 5.5 times the size of the remaininggullets. This enables the fast removal of chips to provide a fastercutting reciprocating saw blade.

Turning to FIG. 6, a method for manufacturing the blades is illustrated.Here, a stock coil 100 is fed into a die set 102. The coil stock 100 hashad the teeth milled and set into the coil. The coil is unwound to havethe teeth milled and set and then rewound after the teeth have beenmilled and set into the coil stock 100. The coil stock 100 is then fedinto the die set 102. As the coil stock 100 enters the die set 102, theteeth 22 are located by a pilot stop 104. Two pilot stops 104 areillustrated which may be used on different size reciprocating sawblades. Since the die set 102 may be utilized to stamp 6″, 9″ and 12″blades, only one die set 102 is needed to manufacture all three sizes.Rollers 106 advance the coil stock 100 into the die set 102. The pilotstops 104 locate the teeth and continue with the coil stock 100 into thedie set. Coil stock 100 is stopped to enable a punch 108 to flatten atleast three teeth of the teeth. The flattening occurs by compressing thepunch together to provide a region that now has no defined tooth set buta straight flat portion. The coil stock 100 continues to be fed intodies 110. As the coil stock 100 is positioned into the dies 110 with thefattened portion at the end of the dies 110. The dies 110 are closed anda punch progression begins to form the first tooth 40 as well as theenlarged gullet 48 into the flattened portion of coil stock to form thesaw blade. Also, as this occurs, the coil stock 100 is continuously fedinto an opening into the die 110 which forms the shanking end of thenext reciprocating blade. It should be noted that the flattening,forming of the first tooth and enlarged gullet, as well as the formingof the shank end, takes place simultaneously in the die set at differentlocations along the die set. After the punching, the blade 10 exits thedie set 102 with a first tooth and gullet as well as the plurality ofteeth as explained above.

The description of the invention is merely exemplary in nature and,thus, variations that do not depart from the gist of the invention areintended to be within the scope of the invention. Such variations arenot to be regarded as a departure from the spirit and scope of thedisclosure.

What is claimed is:
 1. A reciprocating saw blade comprising: a bodyformed from a piece of coil stock and having a shank end configured tosecure the blade with a reciprocating saw, a plunging end configured toenter a workpiece, a cutting edge extending between the shank end andthe plunging end, and a back edge opposite the cutting edge andextending between the shank end and the plunging end, the cutting edgehaving a plurality of teeth arranged in a pattern that includes left andright set teeth, and a plurality of gullets disposed between adjacentteeth in the plurality of teeth, each of the plurality of teeth and theplurality of gullets having substantially the same size, except that afirst tooth immediately adjacent the plunging end has been flattened tobe unset, a third tooth of the plurality of teeth counting consecutivelyfrom the first tooth has been flattened to be unset, and at least aportion of a second tooth of the plurality of teeth countingconsecutively from the first tooth has been removed to form an enlargedgullet between the first tooth and the third tooth, the enlarged gulletbeing larger than the remaining gullets in the plurality of gullets. 2.The reciprocating saw blade of claim 1, wherein the piece of coil stockhas the plurality of teeth formed in the pattern prior to being formedinto the body.
 3. The reciprocating saw blade of claim 2, wherein thefirst tooth is formed and the at least a portion of the second tooth isremoved by punching the coil stock to form the first tooth and theenlarged gullet.
 4. The reciprocating saw blade of claim 1, wherein thesize of the enlarged gullet is approximately twice the size of theremaining gullets of the plurality of gullets.
 5. The reciprocating sawblade of claim 1, wherein the first tooth has a relief face on, a reliefangle of about 35° to 50°.
 6. The reciprocating saw blade of claim 1,wherein said, plunging end has an end surface intersecting said firsttooth forming a cutting edge.
 7. The reciprocating saw blade of claim 1,wherein the back edge is not parallel to the cutting edge.
 8. Thereciprocating saw blade of claim 1, wherein an entirety of the secondtooth has been removed from the body.
 9. The reciprocating saw blade ofclaim 1, wherein the pattern further includes unset teeth.
 10. Areciprocating saw blade comprising: a body having a shanking endconfigured to secure the blade with a reciprocating saw, a plunging endconfigured to plunge into a workpiece, a back edge extending between theshanking end and the plunging end, and a cutting edge extending betweenthe shanking end and the plunging end, wherein the cutting edge includesa plurality of teeth including at least four consecutive cutting teetheach defining a cutting gullet between adjacent cutting teeth, all ofthe at least four consecutive cutting teeth being substantially the samesize and all of the cutting gullets being substantially the same size,wherein the cutting edge further includes a plunging tooth immediatelyadjacent the plunging end and a plunging gullet between the plungingtooth and a leading tooth of the at least four consecutive teeth that isclosest to the plunging end, both the plunging tooth and the leadingtooth being unset, and wherein a distance between the plunging tooth andthe leading tooth is at least twice a distance between each pair ofadjacent teeth in the at least four consecutive teeth.
 11. Thereciprocating saw blade of claim 10, wherein the distance between theplunging tooth and the leading tooth is twice a distance between eachpair of adjacent teeth in the plurality of teeth.
 12. The reciprocatingsaw blade of claim 10, wherein the plunging gullet is 1.5 to 5.5 timesthe size of the cutting gullets.
 13. The reciprocating saw blade ofclaim 10, wherein the plunging tooth is configured to engage a workpieceduring plunge cutting and initiate a kurf prior to the leading toothcontacting the workpiece.
 14. The reciprocating saw blade of claim 10,wherein the plunging end has a plunging tip, an end surface extendingfrom the plunging tip toward the back edge at an angle to the back edge,and a relief edge extending from the plunging tip toward the cuttingedge at an angle to the cutting edge.
 15. The reciprocating saw blade ofclaim 14, wherein the plunging tip has a cutting edge at a junctionbetween the end surface and the relief edge.
 16. The reciprocating sawblade of claim 10, wherein the cutting teeth behind the leading toothinclude set teeth.
 17. The reciprocating saw blade of claim 10, whereinthe back edge not parallel to the cutting edge.
 18. The reciprocatingsaw blade of claim 10, wherein the body has been formed from a piece ofcoil stock having the plurality of teeth formed in the pattern, and theat least a portion of a second tooth between the plunging tooth and theleading tooth has been removed to form the plunging gullet.
 19. Thereciprocating saw blade of claim 18, wherein an entirety of the secondtooth has been removed from the body.
 20. A reciprocating saw bladecomprising: a body formed from a piece of coil stock having a pluralityof teeth arranged in a pattern that includes left set teeth, right setteeth, and unset teeth, and a plurality of gullets, each of theplurality of teeth and the plurality of gullets having substantially thesame size, the body being formed to have a shank end configured tosecure the blade with a reciprocating saw, a plunging end configured toenter a workpiece, a cutting edge extending between the shank end andthe plunging end and defined by the plurality of cutting teeth, and aback edge opposite and non-parallel to the cutting edge and extendingbetween the shank end and the plunging end, wherein, a first toothimmediately adjacent the plunging end is flattened to be unset and has aportion removed to have a different configuration than the remainingplurality of teeth, wherein a third tooth counting consecutively fromthe first tooth is flattened to be unset, and wherein at least a portionof a second tooth counting consecutively from the first tooth is removedto form an enlarged gullet between the first tooth and the third tooth,the enlarged gullet having a size approximately twice a size of theremaining gullets in the plurality of gullets.